ITV's 'Marchlands' enchants more than 6m

ITV's new drama Marchlands premiered with more than 6 million viewers on Thursday evening, beating a Louis Theroux documentary on Israel, according to overnight audience data.

Marchlands averaged 6.19m (26.4%) for ITV1 from 9pm, outperforming Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists, which had 1.81m (7.7%) on BBC Two. Elsewhere on ITV1, Tonight: The Value of a Degree had 3.02m (13.4%) from 7.30pm.

On BBC One, The One Show grabbed 4.81m (21.9%) from 7pm. Documentary series Human Planet captivated 4.45m (18.1%) in the 8pm hour, before the comedy double of Come Fly With Me and Not Going Out amused 3.55m (15%) and 3.67m (15.7%) respectively. Later, Question Time brought in 2.65m (20.1%) from 10.45pm.

Channel 4's Relocation, Relocation located 2.09m (8.5%) in the 8pm hour and 358k (1.5%) on timeshift. Rome Wasn't Built In a Day mustered 1.4m (5.9%) from 9pm and 230k (1.3%) on +1. Topical news programme 10'Clock Live again lost viewers, tumbling to just 810k (4.5%) and 108k (1%) on +1.

Over at BBC Two, Who Does What? fetched 840k (3.7%) in the 7pm hour, before Michel Roux's Service served up 1.63m (6.6%) from 8pm. The Grumpy Guide To Food and Wine had 1.45m (7.2%) from 10pm.

Channel 5's new series Top Trumps: All Terrain Vehicles grabbed 546k (2.4%) from 7.30pm, before Secrets of the Vanishing Sphinx had 1.06m (4.3%). Justin Lee Collins: Turning Japanese appealed to 780k (3.3%) in the 9pm hour and a screening of The Punisher brought in 1.11m (8.5%) from 10pm.

Overall, ITV1 won primetime with 24.7% against BBC One's 21.3%. BBC Two came in third with 6%, narrowly ahead of Channel 4 with 5.8% (+1: 1.1%) and Channel 5 with 3.7%.

Elsewhere, Cannabis: What's the Harm? - presented by ex-EastEnders star James Alexandrou - was watched by 571k (2.4%) on BBC Three from 9pm.

The new series of Skins slumped to 573k (3.2%) on E4 in the 10pm hour, down 350k week-on-week. A further 138k (1.3%) tuned in on +1.